Life is unpredictable, but if someone had said at the beginning of 2024 that, by the end of the year, most pretty highest-ranking faces at the iCon Group along with hotshot young lawyer Sittra Biabangkerd would all be in jail, that Srettha Thavisin would be removed as prime minister and replaced by Paetongtarn Shinawatra with full support from the Thai conservatives, that Donald Trump would easily overcome the “Woke” tsunami and win the presidential race, that Israel would be a global villain despite being on the receiving end of massive hostage tragedy last year, we would have all shaken our heads and walked away from the conversation.
In just one year, old and new beliefs have been seriously challenged, shattered and then blended. 2024 underlines the very facts that nothing stands the test of time, and that even things considered “brand-new” can be short-lived.
The above events are phenomenal because nobody thought any of them would ever happen, let alone them happening together in a spate of only a few months.
Importantly, the aforementioned cases have to do with ideologies or norms. People entered 2024 with their firm sets of ideas, but are leaving it with their minds full of doubts.
The iCon scandal involves trust people give to beautiful rhetoric, lovely faces and credible presentation. These are in fact the elementary rule of advertising, but 2024 has told us to never watch any commercial the same way ever again.
The downfall of Srettha and rise of Paetongtarn make everyone question conservatism and revolution.
Of course, the partnership between the Pheu Thai Party and its former rivals began last year, but the conservative leaders’ luxury cars entering the Ban Chan Song La residence months ago, after which Paetongtarn rose to the premiership, took it to a whole new _ and more embarrassing _ level.
Jatuporn Prompan is Exhibit A of how conservatism and rebellion can merge. His anti-Pheu Thai activities started before this year, but 2024 saw him unprecedentedly talking like a rightist with extreme opinions.
If last year made us suspect his frontline role in the 2010 red-shirt uprising, this year provides some sort of closure or resignation, concerning the fact that nothing is permanent.
Israel dares us to think how far we should go to take a “revenge”. Seemingly, much of the world except for the United States and a few nations thought Israel should not have killed a massive number of innocent children and women, whether those perpetrators of the October 7 Hamas attack on its soil were using them as human shields or not.
The Gaza massacres have great ramifications and will be cited as excuses by other regimes. When minority ethnic groups at the western Thai border face heavy and deadly state crackdowns, for example, those on killing sprees will say, “If Netanyahu can do it, so can we.”
On the one hand, it’s the same old “an eye for an eye” versus “Don’t turn into the one you condemn” debate. On the other hand, 2024 has made everyone search for the meaning of war and peace.
As for Donald Trump, new and old ideologies have mixed messily. Has democracy prevailed in America and hence “saved” the country, or has it been hijacked “democratically” and overwhelmingly so? Why did Kamala Harris rely so much on celebrity endorsements despite campaigning heavily on a Woke Culture platform that cherishes “true identity”, not attractive shells?
With hindsight, “conservatives” have recaptured America but many of them were casting their votes on a concept that politics should be about blue-collar people, not things too idealistic that went too far beyond the food on the table and crimes on the streets. Is this actually “new” politics that beat Harris’ too much emphasis on wonderful rhetoric about “identity”?
Cue President Joe Biden pardoning his son Hunter Biden and the concept of law and order and respect for it becomes more controversial. Is law and order important to democracy? Or is violating it necessary when democracy’s survival is concerned?
And why has the term “far left” been associated with Harris who solicited, spent and is apparently obsessed with money that much? Is “far left” in America still very capitalistic and thus very different from “far left” in the other parts of the world?
Ideologies need advertising, too, in one form or another. The danger is that the line between advertisement and lies or distortions are very thin. This underlines the importance of the media. 2024 has confirmed this loud and clear.
All-out and relentless promotions were a hallmark of iCon Group’s business. Sittra built a high profile through cases that put his name constantly in news reports. Israel required big-name media networks to remind people of the October 7 horror to soften its own image of horror.
The Pheu Thai Party and People’s Party are renewing the Yellow-Red media war of old. But this is a part of an ideological mix-up that is still ongoing. Pheu Thai is saying we shall not throw it all away but the People’s Party insists that is a mean and distorted description of what it is doing.
They do not agree and they are fighting. Again, fresh ideologies are emerging from their clashes and the much-taunted alliance between Pheu Thai and the conservatives.
In short, nothing is definite. Today’s liberals can be tomorrow’s conservatives and vice versa, both here in Thailand and the rest of the world. 2024 has reconfirmed that, with strong evidence or big clues.
